Spartans Take On Stanford in NCAA Second Round

Dec. 6, 2014

2014 NCAA TOURNAMENT: Second Rounds at Stanford Michigan State vs No. 1 Stanford
Tournament Information	Tournament Central
2014 NCAA Bracket	Click Here
Dates	Sat.. Dec. 6, 10 pm ET Palo Alto, Calif. Maples Pavilion
TV/Video Stream	Pac-12 Network
Radio	none
Live Statistics
Download Game Notes	Michigan State \| Stanford
Previews	Video Preview
Social Media	@MichStVB \| Facebook

TOURNAMENT NOTES

• MSU takes on overall No. 1 seed Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The teams face off at 10 p.m. ET on the Pac-12 Network.

• Michigan State defeated Loyola-Marymount 3-1 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday (25-15, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21).

• MSU is now 19-16 in 17 NCAA Tournament appearances. MSU has now won at least one NCAA Tournament match in each of the last four seasons, just the second time in school history that the feat has been accomplished. The 1999-2002 teams also accomplished that feat, but reached the Sweet 16 only once, in 2002 - the current team has been to the Round of 16 in each of the last two seasons.

• Stanford, the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament, advanced with a straight-set win over a feisty Bakersfield team (25-21, 25-21, 25-18). The Cardinal is now 30-1 on the season and owns a 2-0 record against the Spartans all-time - a 2-0 win in 1977, and a 3-0 win in 1996 at Jenison Field House. This is the first-ever meeting between the teams in the NCAA Tournament.

• All six Big Ten teams have advanced through to the second round, with overall No. 4 seed Wisconsin already punching its ticket to a regional with wins over Western Michigan and Illinois State.

• MSU's streak of four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is the third-longest in the Big Ten, behind Penn State and Nebraska.

• This will be sixth year (and seventh trip) that MSU will have NCAA Tournament games in the State of California. MSU has played NCAA matches in Malibu (1999), Los Angeles (2000, 2006, 2012), Santa Barbara (2002), and Berkley (2012 regionals). This will be MSU's first trip to Palo Alto in program history.

• MSU owns a six-match winning streak, the third-longest active winning streak in the Big Ten (behind Wisconsin and Penn State). MSU has won 18 of its 20 sets during the streak.

• MSU averages 2.72 blocks per set, good for fourth in the Big Ten and 25th nationally. In MSU's single-season record book, the 497 block assists is the 11th-highest total in school history, 312.5 total blocks ranks 15th, and the 2.72 blocks per set average ranks ninth - and higher than MSU's 2.58 per set in 2013.

• MSU has had double-digit blocks in 18 of 32 matches overall and nine of its last 13, including 13 last night vs. LMU.

• MSU has hit .248 or better in eight of its last 10 matches, including .288 last night vs. LMU.

• This season, MSU has won the first set in 23 of 32 matches, and is 19-4 when winning the first set.

• Against LMU, Chloe Reinig led all scorers with 19 kills, hitting .417 and adding four blocks, while Allyssa Fitterer tied her season best with 16 kills, hitting a match-best .444 and added three blocks (one solo).

• Senior libero Kori Moster finished her night with 26 digs, moving her into sole possession of third place among all-time Big Ten career dig leaders (2,205). She is just 15 digs shy of tying Jennifer Beltran of Illinois, who sits in second place.

• Freshman setter Rachel Minarick finished with 48 assists, three kills, five digs, and five blocks in her first career NCAA Tournament match, while classmate Alyssa Garvelink made her debut to the tune of 10 kills and a match-high six blocks, hitting .389. • Over MSU's five-match winning streak, Garvelink is averaging 2.75 kills and 1.85 blocks per set, hitting .364. She had a season-best eight block assists at Iowa, and shared the team lead with 10 kills in a win over Purdue. She had 10 kills and six blocks against LMU.

• During the winning streak, five players are averaging 0.85 blocks per set or better: Garvelink (1.85), White (1.15), Minarick (1.0), Fitterer (0.85) and Reinig (0.85). MSU is averaging 3.20 blocks per set in that span.

• On the season, Garvelink is hitting .214, averaging 2.05 kills and 1.07 blocks per set. Her blocks rank 13th overall in the Big Ten. Her 119 total blocks ranks fifth all-time by a freshman in school history, while her 107 block assists is also fifth and her 1.06 blocks per set average ranks seventh.

• Moster averages 4.67 digs per set, which ranks third in the Big Ten overall. She has held the school's career digs record since her junior season, and holds four of the top eight single-season dig performances in school history. Her 537 digs this season is fourth among single-season MSU marks - her career-best season of 602 came as a sophomore (second), and she posted 592 as a junior (third) and 474 as a freshman (eighth).

• Over nine career NCAA Tournament matches, Moster has averaged 5.24 digs per set. Her career-best of 29 digs first came against San Diego in the first round of her sophomore season, and she had 26 last night vs. LMU.

• Moster has posted double-digit digs in 29 of the 32 Spartan matches this season. In 136 career matches, Moster has been held with less than 10 digs only 18 times; six of those occasions were her first six collegiate matches.

• Both Moster and Allyssah Fitterer have set career bests in NCAA Tournament matches. Moster has recorded 29 digs four times, which she first did in the 2012 first round against San Diego (and matched most recently this season against Illinois). Fitterer established her career-best of 18 kills in last year's Sweet 16 matchup with Penn State, which helped earn her a spot on the Lexington Regional All-Tournament Team.

• Fitterer has had two of her best career performances in the NCAA Tournament. In addition to her career-best 18 against PSU last season, she posted a season-high 16 kills last night, hitting a match-best .444 and adding three blocks (one solo). In four career NCAA Tournament matches, Fitterer averages 3.47 kills per set, has hit .402, and added 0.53 blocks per set.

• Chloe Reinig has averaged double-digit kills since Big Ten play began, and has just eight matches overall this season where she was held with nine kills or fewer. She ranks fourth overall in the Big Ten with 3.7 kills/s, • Reinig has averaged 2.93 kills per set over four career NCAA Tournament matches, along with 0.73 blocks per set.

• Reinig has gone for 20+ kills four times this season, including in back-to-back matches vs. Michigan. She had 19 kills in the match vs. LMU, the most of any Big Ten player in the NCAA Tournament this season.

• Senior Jazmine White is averaging 1.21 blocks per set overall (good for ninth in the Conference and 71st nationally ), and had four kills and five blocks vs. LMU, She has been playing with a broken hand since the Penn State match on Oct. 25.

• Senior DS Ryian Hubbard tied her career best with four service aces against LMU, and had eight digs.